Valerio Centofanti

A former electronic technician with a passion for music. This is, very briefly, the profile of Valerio Centofanti who, as time has gone by, has been consumed by the flame of cooking, lit by pastry-chef, Angelo di Masso, who turned up at Angolo d’Abruzzo a few years ago to turn the dessert menu around. But let’s take things in the right order. In 1986 Lanfranco, Valerio’s dad, opened Angolo d’Abruzzo, a restaurant which got off to a great start, with grand ambitions and a precise idea: to propose simple, seasonal, traditional dishes.

Twenty-five years later, the restaurant is a point of reference in Abruzzo. A result owed mainly to having remained faithful to the initial plan, improving over the years a formula which has turned out to be winning and that Valerio likes to sum up in the motto “the continuity of flavours“. Valerio has learned from his father respect for and the value of the products of the land and herding, so much so that the journey into cuisine embarked upon almost by chance by this young chef, continues, sustained by the passion for and pleasure of searching for “real” ingredients and recipes capable of capturing and enhancing the flavours and authenticity of the products of the agro-herding tradition and the identity of Abruzzo’s cuisine. The technique and rigour acquired during his patisserie lessons have taught Valerio the value of discipline, softened in the kitchen by a creative charge that has brought a breath of fresh air to the menu in recent years.

Freshness also reigns in the dining room when Valentina, Valerio’s sister looks after clients and thanks to the wine list of the well-stocked cellar, skilfully created by their father Lanfranco. Today, as in the past, the main feature at Centofanti consists of unique cheeses, cured meats and sausages, mushrooms, truffles, wild herbs, handmade pasta and meat, which is simply sublime, chosen with the utmost care because, while Valerio holds the helm in the kitchen, Lanfranco continues to be nicknamed “the brazier”. Those who eat at this restaurant know that the coals are always burning under the big grill at Angolo d’Abruzzo.